Two years ago, Rod Hood was a heralded second-tier free agent signing by the Arizona Cardinals. He spent the first four seasons of his career in Philadelphia, mostly as a nickel and dime back. He started 30 games in two seasons for the Cardinals, and his solid play allowed the Cards to move Antrel Rolle to safety. Hood would pair with Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie at cornerback the majority of the 2009 regular season and the postseason.

He has solid, not spectacular speed, good size at 5-11 198 and despite limited playing time his first few years he’s a playmaker. In six seasons, he has 11 interceptions, a sack, two forced fumbles, five recovered fumbles, 58 passed defensed and two touchdowns. At the time, I thought he could be the next Al Harris, despite having performed even better in his time with the Eagles. Harris was traded to Green Bay before the 2003 season and he developed into one of the best cornerbacks in the league.

Arizona parted ways with Hood after signing Bryant McFadden from the Steelers early in the 2009 free agency period. I was waiting for the Lions to pounce on the opportunity to add a young playmaking cornerback for a reasonable contract. The Browns beat the Lions to the punch and signed Hood. I was shocked when Hood was cut by the Browns in the preseason, but they have a couple young corners that they want to develop so it made some sense to me. A few days later Hood signed with the Bears and I could not fathom why the Lions kept passing on him.

Several days later Hood was cut loose by the Bears and was available until yesterday morning when he signed with the injury riddled Titans. The Lions sorely need help in the secondary and were resorting to the waiver wire to pick up cast offs like Marcus McCauley and Kevin Hobbs. Meanwhile a promising young cornerback who was starting for the NFC Champions was sitting out there.

Obviously, the Lions aren’t the only team that thought Rod Hood was not a viable option for them, but the question is what happened to Rod Hood? When the Lions played the Browns in the preseason, I saw the same Rod Hood that had played at such a high level the previous season. Time will tell if he still has anything to offer the Titans depleted secondary. The Lions replaced Eric King with Demarcus Faggins an eight-year vet that couldn’t cut it with the Texans porous secondary. Obviously, I would have liked to see Hood wearing the Honolulu Blue and Silver, but I guess I will have to settle for signing him in Madden 10.